Daily Thought For August 5, 2018

Food That Endures For Eternal Life

When I see that everything around me is collapsing, increasing evil and darkness that may engulf me, I need to remember the words of Saint Paul: where sin increased, grace abounded all the more (Rom 5:20). If I see my personal selfishness or egoism in those around me, I can see it as an opportunity to look for the solution in the one place I can find it. I need to turn to the one who loves me and unceasingly transmits his redeeming graces on the altar. In my difficulties, he is here and now closer to me than ever.

The chosen people’s forty years of wandering in the desert mirrors humankind’s journey towards God. It is an image of my history too. I can detect in it some of my own temptations to doubt in the face of what seems to be overpowering. For Moses, who led the wandering during this time, it sometimes seemed that everything was falling apart. He felt as though his life was one big failure. Perseverance seemed to bring him to the breaking point. The Bible sums up his extraordinary perseverance: He endured as seeing him who is invisible (Heb 11:27).

I need to be reminded that everything is taking place according to God’s will or at least with his consent. After all, he foresees it all from the beginning and decides how opposition to his will can best be utilized. “Wicked men,” writes Saint Augustine, “do many things contrary to God’s will; but so great is his wisdom and power, that all things which seem adverse to his purpose do still tend towards those just and good ends and issues which he himself has foreknown.” And somewhere else: “For almighty God…because he is supremely good, would never allow any evil whatsoever to exist in his works if he were not so all-powerful and good as to cause good to emerge from evil itself.”

Father Tadeusz Dajczer